In the round-up: Sergio Perez says Nico Hulkenberg should have waited to pass him more easily when they collided during the British Grand Prix.
In brief
Perez collision “rushed and unnecessary” – Hulkenberg
The Haas driver’s race was ruined when he was passed by the quicker Red Bull of Perez and the pair made contact, removing Hulkenberg’s front-left wing endplate.
“It’s just unfortunate,” he told media including RaceFans afterwards. “Actually I didn’t even feel it but we must have touched at the exit of [turn] four.
“I think it was a little bit impatient from him because he had DRS, after turn six anyway he would have gone easily by me. It was a little bit rushed and unnecessary, I thought. But it is what it is now.”
Four caught speeding in pits in F2
Yesterday’s Formula 2 feature race saw an unusually high number of drivers penalised for pit lane speeding violations. A quartet of racers – Arthur Leclerc, Jehan Daruvala, Richard Verschoor and Roy Nissany – all exceeded the limit by up to 4.9kph and were given five-second time penalties.Oliver Bearman was handed a five-second penalty for causing a collision with Kush Maini after the pair tangled at Vale. That incident caused a subsequent collision between Maini and Ralph Boschung.
The stewards ruled Maini had right to the racing line in his attempted overtake on Bearman. They deemed the Prema driver “wholly responsible for the incident” and issued a penalty which dropped him from sixth to eighth in the final classification. One penalty point has also been added to his licence.
Grid drop for Edgar
Jonny Edgar has been given a three-place grid drop for the next race he competes in after colliding with Caio Collet at Silverstone.
During the feature race the MP driver hit Collet at Vale after misjudging his braking on the inside. He was initially given a five-second penalty but as Edgar did not finish the race, it has been converted to a grid drop. It is likely to come into effect at the next Formula 3 round in two weeks at Budapest.
Collet didn’t leave Silverstone penalty-free either. He was penalised for leaving the track and gaining an advantage during his overtake on Ido Cohen at Stowe. He did not give the position back and has a five-second penalty as a result.
That dropped Collet from 9th to 15th in the final classification with Gregoire Saucy and Sebastian Montoya now claiming the final two points positions.
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Links
Motor racing links of interest:
'The start of the issue with us was on Friday when Charles wasn’t able to run in FP2 and so we only had a long run on the Soft from which we had concerns about degradation. That’s why we decided to go with Medium-Hard, which proved to be too conservative a choice as the degradation was lower than expected. That is an important lesson for us.'
Drivers and team’s quotes after the race (AlphaTauri)
'The aero update we have introduced here appears to be broadly in line with expectations, but it has not been enough to move us forward in Silverstone. The further planned aero update for Hungary will be an important step to start addressing this, to get back on track towards achieving our objectives.”'
'It’s been a very disappointing weekend. We just didn’t have the pace and we’ve now had our third engine failure in three races as well – that doesn’t help us.'
'Zhou’s race has been more unfortunate: we had to pit him an extra time to remove a tear-off from his brake duct, which made him lose a position and eventually kept him from further progressing through the field.'
'McLaren have shown that they are podium contenders; they were the second quickest team this weekend, which is impressive when you consider where they were earlier in the season.'
Early confidence ‘came back to bite us’ after wet-to-dry Sprint Race struggles (F2)
Oliver Bearman: 'The early phase of the race was really strong. I think it came back to bite us at the end, I had to overtake Hadjar twice.'
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
In the press conference @LewisHamilton says he thought it would be difficult for @LandoNorris on hard tyres to keep him on softs behind.
"Knowing what it's like to be on the hards in the restart at the end with someone on the softs behind, I knew that it would be difficult." #F1 pic.twitter.com/GL14PkzAwK
— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) July 9, 2023
The APX GP cars for the upcoming Formula 1 film are on the grid before today's race.#F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/Ky3dOHQq9T
— RaceFans Live (@racefanslive) July 9, 2023
🚨 OSCAR SHOEY ALERT 🚨
🚨 LANDO SHOEY ALERT 🚨#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/8vP9uXQ2kl
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) July 9, 2023
https://twitter.com/Caradelevingne/status/1678101614220001280
@gridwalk1 Are thoughts and prayers are with the family of the Jordan 195 engine. #f1 #fyp #silverstone
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- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Comment of the day
The performance of the new tyres in yesterday’s race didn’t only surprise the teams:
The soft tyres were weird today. Russell made 28 laps on them with decent pace while Hamilton’s dropped off or either he just settled for P3.
I thought Hamilton had a shot at Verstappen because he was matching and going faster on some laps at the end of the first stint, even catching Norris. These are the new tyres, and this was quite a weird race.
Russell on soft tyres kept up with Leclerc on medium tyres for 28 laps, then Hamilton on the same tyres could not overtake Norris on hards?
Kribana (@krichelle)
Happy birthday!
No RaceFans birthdays today
On this day in motorsport
- 35 years ago today Ayrton Senna won a streaming wet British Grand Prix at Silverstone. His team mate Alain Prost pulled out due to poor visibility
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Darryn Smith (@darryn)
10th July 2023, 3:08
Hulkenberg must have set the single season record for most places lost. I can’t believe Haas keep these drivers. There must be some young guys out there that are better than this.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th July 2023, 8:06
I rather think it’s actually a sign of Hulkenberg tending to get the most out of the car on qualifying laps @darryn. If you start lower down, you won’t be passed, right.
And the Haas really seems to be bad at tyre management. Here Hulk was doing fine until he lost that chunk of his front wing from the moment with Perez, he was still running where he had been and his hard tyre strategy could have paid off (pitting only when the SC came out) if he hadn’t needed to stop this early due to that.
Laz
10th July 2023, 9:00
I can’t believe you can watch both cars go backwards come race day and not figure it’s to do with the car and tyre degradation.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
10th July 2023, 13:56
@darryn I find it unbelievable that there’s people willing to drive for Haas knowing that it’s such a bad team
Coventry Climax
10th July 2023, 18:17
I’d be more than happy to give it a go.
praxis (@praxis)
10th July 2023, 5:10
I get it that celebrities on the grid before the race start is valuable/important to the sport. Maybe it helps attract new fans or simply adds to the show. But sometimes it makes for such uncomfortable viewing, I sometimes cringe seeing Martin Brundle chasing weaving through cars, mechanics and media people…. trying to catch the attention of someone famous and fumbling to ask something relevant. And all the fake outrage online for something so nonsensical, feels even worse.
The solution is simple though, I can simply not pay any attention to these things.
BasCB (@bascb)
10th July 2023, 8:08
Yeah, glad I have better race coverage now from F1TV @praxis. Asking a celebrity for some eleven in a dozen variant of “I am enjoying myself here, xyz invited me, I am a fan of (insert driver name)” is really a completely useless way to spend time.
praxis (@praxis)
10th July 2023, 8:57
@bascb,
Yeah, looks like I’ve got to subscribe to the “F1 TV Pro” option, this is available in my region now. Nobody has taken exclusive rights here like Sky has in UK, Ireland. $45 per year seems quite lucrative now.
bosyber (@bosyber)
10th July 2023, 18:47
Do it, for that price it’s really worth it @praxis, alternative (not skyf1 voices, in several languages and the ‘car+pitradio’ track to watch undisturbed) audio tracks, car-camera. Living in Germany I missed the window before Sky Germany got the rights, definitely a loss.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
10th July 2023, 6:05
I’ve said it before, Brundle at this point knows they are not willing to talk. And he ironically remarked “that would have been interesting”. So why even bother? He’s just purposely chasing controversy. I agree celebrities bring nothing and I’d rather they have true fans there giving them the time of their life than Serena Williams or whoever is trendy these days.
But since that’s not happening anytime soon, why even try to get them to say anything? Just find someone relevant to the race and the sport.
notagrumpyfan
10th July 2023, 7:33
I don’t watch Sky, and not sure what public they try to cater for. If it’s F1 fans then they should not interview celebrities unless they are known ‘petrolheads’. If they try to cater for the casual TV audience then those ‘interviews’ might be what the viewers want.
I watch F1TV and certainly am not waiting for interviews with people who don’t understand F1 or motor racing.
baasbas
10th July 2023, 7:50
I agree he is doing it on purpose. And I love it. At this point their agents should have warned them someone at some point will stick a microphone in their face and ask questions. So you’d better do some homework*. I mean, it is the only reason a celebrity is actually there.. for publicity. They’re supposed to get a camera and microphone in their face.
* there have been celebrities who did have an interest in F1 (or did their homework)
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
10th July 2023, 8:22
Absolutely this – great comment.
SteveP
10th July 2023, 8:35
CZJ and husband Michael (some American bloke) :) – the other week.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
10th July 2023, 13:55
Fair enough. I rather see him talking to an engineer, a driver, a pundit than some random actor saying random stuff
drmouse (@drmouse)
10th July 2023, 14:15
Agreed. I really love it when a celeb (who I often have not heard of) makes a fool of themselves by not knowing anything about F1. They’ve got an opportunity many of us would give a limb to experience, but it’s completely wasted on them if they are not fans. In that case, they’re doing it for their own publicity, and it’s great to see them knocked down a peg or two and shown up in front of everyone… All they had to do was the tiniest bit of homework.
It’s also a bad look for them to refuse to speak to anyone. They’re on the grid, they are expected to speak to the press if questioned. Not doing so looks churlish at best. Even the blooming drivers, who are busy preparing to race, normally give a couple of minutes to the press on the grid walk.
Jay
10th July 2023, 7:30
I find it ironic and sad that a sport that claims to champion safety and ‘sustainability’ lets drivers just pull tear-offs and toss em out of the car. They should keep the used ones in the car or only remove them in a pitstop. Not only is it not safe nor sustainable but it can and has ruined other drivers races.
Its not exclusive to F1 either, MotoGP does it too.
MacLeod (@macleod)
10th July 2023, 7:40
They tried it already for the reason you said not the sustainabililty part. Their problem was the collection bag was hard to operate while driving the wind made it hard to do so. (vortex)
SteveP
10th July 2023, 8:40
These people spend millions on developments to gain a few tenths of a second.
Insist the tear-off is stamped with the driver name, introduce a 5-second penalty for a tear-off loose on the track (or in someone’s brake duct etc.) then see how much they spend on a system to ensure the tear-off remains in the car.
I think it’s very possible, if they have an incentive.
Jay
10th July 2023, 10:46
Great solution!
drmouse (@drmouse)
10th July 2023, 14:24
This. In fact, they could number the strips and then ensure they were all accounted for after the race easily enough.
In general, the best way to solve a problem in F1 is to make it advantageous for the teams to solve it. They have some of the best engineers, the best innovative thinkers, on the planet. If they will gain an advantage by something, or be disadvantaged by not doing so, they will come up with much better solutions than the FIA could.
This is the main reason I always thought a reverse championship order grid sprint race or qualifying was a good idea. It’s not for the manufactured entertainment it would create, but because the top teams would have to be able to overtake to finish well. There would be much more incentive to making their cars work in dirty air, and more incentive for them to push for regulations making the cars easier to follow and overtake. The fantastic engineers they have working for them don’t, right now, have much incentive to do so.
Coventry Climax
10th July 2023, 18:29
Although I agree with the issue, I think it would be sad to see engineering power getting wasted on this instead of on aero, suspension, brakes, powerplants, tyres, etc. Oh wait, the FIA is already well on it’s way in the mission to put a stop to all development.
There’s only two ways to get road relevance: Put F1 technology in roadcars, or put roadcars in F1. The FIA is seeking the latter.
Jere (@jerejj)
10th July 2023, 8:09
Impatient? He did nothing wrong, so if anything, backing off rather than trying to continue battling against a driver in a considerably faster car would’ve been wiser.
Soft was indeed weird & tyres generally, so perhaps a step softer combination for next season’s British GP should be in order.
drmouse (@drmouse)
10th July 2023, 14:27
It did look like they’d brought one step too hard to this race. But then again, it looked more like none of the tyres were performing as anyone expected. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though…
Coventry Climax
10th July 2023, 18:31
Probably conservative as a result of not being sure of the quality of their own product. That’s happened before with Pirelli.
Qeki (@qeki)
10th July 2023, 8:59
It’s like Pirelli has understood the core of F1. Never ever in any circumstances be logical. If they bring back any other brand to start the tyre war it will just go downhill.
Coventry Climax
10th July 2023, 18:32
Not possible. Pirelli and understanding are mutually exclusive.